Why the "gay" stereotypes?

So I've been reading all these articles on the Chic Fil A thing and am a little appalled by all the comments being left. I mean, of course I know that there are people that don't believe in gay rights and all that. But I was sort of surprised at all the stereotypes that people would write in the comments section and at how many of those would get thumb-ups from other users.

For instance, I saw comments saying that all gays they had met were drug users, led dysfunctional relationships, had all sorts of STDs, etc... Now, I'm not saying the "gay community" is perfect, but it's not as though these issues are limited to just us. Plus, I'd like to think of myself as a "normal" person.

Why do you think these negative stereotypes exist? Do you think they're warranted cause of the "gay scene" or just complete hatred? It just doesn't make sense to me... Just a little saddening

Because if they blame the gays for all their problems, then the don't have to be responsible for their miserable lives.

Really, you could ask why do any stereotypes exist. Life might be easier to deal with if you only have to face a fixed number of different types. Just lump someone into a category that you already dealt with (or heard about) and move on, rather than having to get to know someone as an individual and have a more nuanced look at life.

MolaMola saidBecause if they blame the gays for all their problems, then the don't have to be responsible for their miserable lives.

Really, you could ask why do any stereotypes exist. Life might be easier to deal with if you only have to face a fixed number of different types. Just lump someone into a category that you already dealt with (or heard about) and move on, rather than having to get to know someone as an individual and have a more nuanced look at life.

I have to believe there's also no proper vehicles for getting the truth out about us. Example:

I was at a very nice private dinner, with wealthy and well-educated people. I struck up a conversation with a married lady who was genuinely sympathetic to gays and our issues, and who pledged through me to donate to an HIV/AIDS charity. So not hostile to us.

But then she asked me how long did it usually take before a gay man got AIDS.

She thought HIV & AIDS was the inevitable fate of all gay men. About which she was sympathetic, willing to donate her money, not accusatory or judgmental. But at the same time, seriously misinformed. Naturally I explained the reality to her.

But if an educated, wealthy and apparently well-read woman can be so wrong about gays, is it any wonder that redneck trailer-trash and brainwashed evangelicals and conservatives would be?

Conservative principles are often about maintaining the status quo. With half the country's religious beliefs against us, we make a convenient scapegoat, especially in an election year. (We're so special.)

I'm not all that religious myself, but religious liberals seem less likely to let the past hold them back. The liberal paints a picture of equality, which isn't represented in the Bible.

MolaMola saidBecause if they blame the gays for all their problems, then the don't have to be responsible for their miserable lives.

Really, you could ask why do any stereotypes exist. Life might be easier to deal with if you only have to face a fixed number of different types. Just lump someone into a category that you already dealt with (or heard about) and move on, rather than having to get to know someone as an individual and have a more nuanced look at life.

Art_Deco saidI have to believe there's also no proper vehicles for getting the truth out about us. Example:

I was at a very nice private dinner, with wealthy and well-educated people. I struck up a conversation with a married lady who was genuinely sympathetic to gays and our issues, and who pledged through me to donate to an HIV/AIDS charity. So not hostile to us.

But then she asked me how long did it usually take before a gay man got AIDS.

She thought HIV & AIDS was the inevitable fate of all gay men. About which she was sympathetic, willing to donate her money, not accusatory or judgmental. But at the same time, seriously misinformed. Naturally I explained the reality to her.

But if an educated, wealthy and apparently well-read woman can be so wrong about gays, is it any wonder that redneck trailer-trash and brainwashed evangelicals and conservatives would be?

I completely agree with the point you make here. Its mostly such a culture of historical misinformation that goes back DECADES. Also that people who DON'T conform to the stereotypes sometimes don't want to come out publicly to prove them wrong, preferring to remain out of the limelight and away from controversy. Controversy and social change are inseparable. If we have any hope of seeing a major social shift in terms of acceptance and understanding then, just like Harvey Milk said, we ALL have to "come out," even the ones who are already "out." More than ever before, we need to show the country and the American people that we aren't the hoard of diseased, sex-crazed deviants they've convinced themselves that we are!

Art_Deco saidI have to believe there's also no proper vehicles for getting the truth out about us. Example:

I was at a very nice private dinner, with wealthy and well-educated people. I struck up a conversation with a married lady who was genuinely sympathetic to gays and our issues, and who pledged through me to donate to an HIV/AIDS charity. So not hostile to us.

But then she asked me how long did it usually take before a gay man got AIDS.

She thought HIV & AIDS was the inevitable fate of all gay men. About which she was sympathetic, willing to donate her money, not accusatory or judgmental. But at the same time, seriously misinformed. Naturally I explained the reality to her.

But if an educated, wealthy and apparently well-read woman can be so wrong about gays, is it any wonder that redneck trailer-trash and brainwashed evangelicals and conservatives would be?

I completely agree with the point you make here. Its mostly such a culture of historical misinformation that goes back DECADES. Also that people who DON'T conform to the stereotypes sometimes don't want to come out publicly to prove them wrong, preferring to remain out of the limelight and away from controversy. Controversy and social change are inseparable. If we have any hope of seeing a major social shift in terms of acceptance and understanding then, just like Harvey Milk said, we ALL have to "come out," even the ones who are already "out." More than ever before, we need to show the country and the American people that we aren't the hoard of diseased, sex-crazed deviants they've convinced themselves that we are!

There's nothing wrong with sex. A lot of Americans just have weird, puritanical hang-ups on it. It was meant to be a fun, loving, intimate act that has been perverted by the church. I'm not saying we should all practice free-love or Roman orgies but people need to seriously relax over sex. It's not a big deal.

To be honest, it's like the "nerd" stereotypes in middles school. I had never actually met anyone who fits them.It's because the average plain gay men fit in so well that no one even suspects them being gay. (Surprise! We are everywhere.)And, when you need to demonize a group of people you take the stereotypes and blow them out of proportion. Like how people used to stereotype the Jews as all being greedy, the gaybashers stereotype us as all being promiscuous, diseased drug-addicts.

Art_Deco saidI have to believe there's also no proper vehicles for getting the truth out about us. Example:

I was at a very nice private dinner, with wealthy and well-educated people. I struck up a conversation with a married lady who was genuinely sympathetic to gays and our issues, and who pledged through me to donate to an HIV/AIDS charity. So not hostile to us.

But then she asked me how long did it usually take before a gay man got AIDS.

She thought HIV & AIDS was the inevitable fate of all gay men. About which she was sympathetic, willing to donate her money, not accusatory or judgmental. But at the same time, seriously misinformed. Naturally I explained the reality to her.

But if an educated, wealthy and apparently well-read woman can be so wrong about gays, is it any wonder that redneck trailer-trash and brainwashed evangelicals and conservatives would be?

I completely agree with the point you make here. Its mostly such a culture of historical misinformation that goes back DECADES. Also that people who DON'T conform to the stereotypes sometimes don't want to come out publicly to prove them wrong, preferring to remain out of the limelight and away from controversy. Controversy and social change are inseparable. If we have any hope of seeing a major social shift in terms of acceptance and understanding then, just like Harvey Milk said, we ALL have to "come out," even the ones who are already "out." More than ever before, we need to show the country and the American people that we aren't the hoard of diseased, sex-crazed deviants they've convinced themselves that we are!

There's nothing wrong with sex. A lot of Americans just have weird, puritanical hang-ups on it. It was meant to be a fun, loving, intimate act that has been perverted by the church. I'm not saying we should all practice free-love or Roman orgies but people need to seriously relax over sex. It's not a big deal.

My meaning in this context was that many people think that sex is the ONLY thing that we are interested in; that all we do night and day is screw. Its such a common misconception that its been parodied in sitcoms and television shows. The reality is that there is no difference in the amount of sex between a healthy hetero relationship and a homosexual one.

MolaMola saidBecause if they blame the gays for all their problems, then the don't have to be responsible for their miserable lives.

Really, you could ask why do any stereotypes exist. Life might be easier to deal with if you only have to face a fixed number of different types. Just lump someone into a category that you already dealt with (or heard about) and move on, rather than having to get to know someone as an individual and have a more nuanced look at life.

It's not that none do, but the "Gay Community" was from the beginning commandeered by the radical Marxist Left of academia.

DH explains it better than I could:

A specter is haunting America’s universities, the last refuge of the political left. It is the specter of “queer theory,” the latest of the radical identity politics that have replaced class struggle and the classic proletariat in the schema of Marxist revolution.

Amidst the din and clatter of utopias crashing messily to earth, the true believers once again are burnishing the agendas of social revolution. In ivied trenches from Berkeley to Cambridge, lesbian and gay activists busily work to unveil the latest weapon in the intellectual armory of the tenured left.

“Queer politics is no longer content to carve out a buffer zone for a minoritized and protected subculture,” an academic manifesto proclaims. Its goal is “to challenge the pervasive and often invisible heteronormativity of modern societies.”

The same idea is explained in less obscure prose in the pages of the Village Voice: “It isn’t enough to become parallel to straights. We want to obliterate such dichotomies altogether.”

JackBlair69, Please share with us your FINAL SOLUTION to The Gay Problem as you see it.

MolaMola saidBecause if they blame the gays for all their problems, then the don't have to be responsible for their miserable lives.

Really, you could ask why do any stereotypes exist. Life might be easier to deal with if you only have to face a fixed number of different types. Just lump someone into a category that you already dealt with (or heard about) and move on, rather than having to get to know someone as an individual and have a more nuanced look at life.

Art_Deco saidI have to believe there's also no proper vehicles for getting the truth out about us. Example:

I was at a very nice private dinner, with wealthy and well-educated people. I struck up a conversation with a married lady who was genuinely sympathetic to gays and our issues, and who pledged through me to donate to an HIV/AIDS charity. So not hostile to us.

The very important people you must meet at your candle light suppors;; the snobery of it all. So Art while you were a straight married daddy, did you consider yourself one of us, and were gay issues yours too?

But then she asked me how long did it usually take before a gay man got AIDS.

She thought HIV & AIDS was the inevitable fate of all gay men. About which she was sympathetic, willing to donate her money, not accusatory or judgmental. But at the same time, seriously misinformed. Naturally I explained the reality to her.

But if an educated, wealthy and apparently well-read woman can be so wrong about gays, is it any wonder that redneck trailer-trash and brainwashed evangelicals and conservatives would be?

how pompous of you Bobby, lets not overlook your many, many long years of you looking down on us as all being dirty and beneath you; albeit you still need your pedestal. But....then I suppose it helps you look past your miserable life.